


Phantom Network: Antiviral Renewal

by ExoZadakh



Category: Original Work
Genre: Heist, Powered Armor, Science Fiction, elemental powers
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-09-19
Updated: 2020-09-19
Packaged: 2021-03-08 01:06:59
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,091
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/26537038
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/ExoZadakh/pseuds/ExoZadakh
Summary: A trio of Phantom Thieves collaborate on an important job.





	Phantom Network: Antiviral Renewal

**Author's Note:**

> For an upcoming contest, my first thought was to revisit a concept I came up with earlier this year. However, I ended up going over the word limit, so I'll just post it here.

So, quick show of hands: who here has been blasted through a wall before? One, two…nobody? Really? Just me? Okay. Well then, let me tell you, kiddos: _it’s not fun_.

I groaned loudly as I pulled myself out of the rubble, sounding off just to let the world know it hadn’t killed me quite yet. My fog coat was caked with dust and grime, but the gunmetal alchemar beneath, though not exactly giving off the same shine it gets after a good polishing, remained intact and undamaged. The debris shifted as I moved—a block fell on the end of my green silk scarf, pinning me for a moment until I pulled it loose—but eventually I got to my feet, shook the dust from my domino mask, and took stock of my surroundings. The space could be deemed “cramped” horizontally, but vertically, it went on for ages; it was hard to tell exactly how far, the service lights blinking along the walls didn’t entirely stave off the darkness, but I had enough to deduce I had been thrown into an elevator shaft. My point of entry was only three stories up, I realized, thankful it hadn’t been any higher.

Right, crazy situation, how’d I get here, et cetera. A couple days ago, a fellow Phantom Thief who goes by “Witch Doctor” approached me for help in a heist she was planning: our local megacorp MiliGrand had recently unveiled a new miracle drug effective in curing over 200 different diseases, and managing the symptoms of at least a thousand more. Problem was, they held exclusive rights and were selling it for millions of dollars a pop. Doc wanted to bust into their compound, steal the drug, and get it into the hands of people who need it but don’t have the money to buy a new yacht every quarter, and thought she should get some backup to make sure things went smoothly. Sounded like a good cause, so I agreed. It was only _after_ that I found out who else she had recruited…

“Roche? Still breathing, darling?”

My eyes rolled upward. Leaning into the shaft was an athletic woman with medium brown skin and bright red, shoulder-length hair dangling around her smug face. Her alchemar was silver and looked very lightweight, the armor itself being very sleek but accentuated by a knee-length half-skirt and off-the-shoulder shawl, both made of smooth pink fabric. In answer, I let out a loud sigh.

“Excellent,” she said. “Say, while you’re down there, be a dear and get us into the bottom level, would you? No point in going the long way and wasting even more time.”

“Wonderful suggestion, Kari,” I said. “I’ll get right on that.”

Kari winked before ducking out into the hall. Resigning myself to my task, I faced the wall and activated my alchemar, beginning the delicate process of manipulating the force of gravity acting on it.

See, I’ve worked with Kari a handful of times prior to this, and every single one has ended in me getting screwed over in one way or another. When we sabotaged the test run of an elites-only bullet train, she used me as a distraction so she could rob the facility’s safe on the way out. When we were contracted to recover a list of museum exhibits, she swapped my list with a fake, made me look like a fool just to be sure she was the only one building goodwill with the client. Hell, she more or less left me to die the last time I saw her, yet here she was, spewing the same fake charm as ever like none of that had ever happened. She hasn’t changed, and I doubt she ever will.

Still. There were a lot of people who needed this drug. I couldn’t quite bring myself to leave them to it just for the sake of my own comfort.

I curled my fingers as I finished bending the gravitational fields. Taking a step back, I willed the centermost field I had created to head in the same direction; the wall shuddered, bulged slightly, and finally gave, a huge circular chunk of it floating out to reveal the hall on the other side. Carefully setting down the hunk of wall, I deactivated my alchemar and looked back up to where I had entered the shaft. Kari leaned against the side of the opening, polishing her gauntlet as she waited. Next to her stood Witch Doctor, a woman of similar age and skin tone who looked a touch more frail, face obscured by a surgical mask and massive glasses with blacked-out lenses.

“You sure you’re ready to be on your feet, Doc?” I asked. “You took some pretty bad hits in that scrap just now.”

She straightened the faded gray robe she wore, almost covering the scorch marks on the thin, pale blue alchemar beneath. “I’ll be fine, Roche, thank you. We can’t afford to waste any time.”

Doc shakily held one arm out. Just as I was about to say something, Kairi tapped her on the shoulder and said, “Allow me.”

Without waiting for a response, she scooped up Witch Doctor and jumped down to the bottom of the shaft. Doc panicked a little, and honestly, so did I; Kari seemed to be enjoying that fact. I said, “Yeesh, would you take it easy?”

Brushing right past me (and still carrying Doc), Kari said, “You heard her: we can’t afford to waste any time. Besides, weren’t you concerned about her health? This way she doesn’t have to strain herself.”

“Yeah,” I grumbled as I followed her into the hall, “and instead you give her a heart attack…”

“Oh, need you be so dramatic? You’re fine, aren’t you, Doctor?”

Doc didn’t respond. Craning my neck, I could see she was still staring up at Kari; hard to be sure of much else with her whole face covered, but if I had to guess she was having some difficulty processing what was going on.

Kari chuckled. “Adorable.”

“Hey, give her some space to breathe.”

Throwing a smirk over her shoulder, Kari asked, “My, is that jealousy I hear?”

“Hah! Maybe Doc can check your hearing once we get back. It’s this way, right?”

Somehow I was fortunate enough to have relative quiet the rest of the way to the lab. The first door didn’t look particularly fancy, just a sliding metal door with a scanner next to it. Once Kari finally set Witch Doctor down and let her regain her bearing, the Doc reached into her robe and pulled out an eyeball. I turned back to the door and--

...Wait.

No, yes, that was an eyeball she was holding. My shock was apparent, it seems, because she said, “Don’t worry, it’s synthetic. Pardon me.”

She held the very real-looking but apparently fake eyeball up to the scanner, and a few seconds later the door slid open. Putting the eye away, Doc peered into the next room, and I did the same: it was a pretty spacious square of a chamber, though probably not as big as it looked since it was entirely empty. On the far wall was a much bigger, more imposing, cooler-looking door than the one we were currently poking through, flanked by a series of panels that blinked and beeped sporadically.

“Alright,” Doc said. “The bulk of the floor here is made of pressure plates, but unfortunately, I wasn’t able to obtain accurate data on the safe path through them.”

“Easy,” Kari said. “I’ll just zip right across.”

She took a step forward, but Witch Doctor shook her head furiously. “No, wait! If the plates recede for even a fraction of a second, an alarm will trigger!”

“Mmm...how small a fraction?”

“You want to burn your entire charge right here?” I asked. “This is what I’m here for. I’ll change you and Doc’s personal gravity and you jump over the plates.”

“Oh? So our fate will be in your hands?”

That’s real damn rich coming from her. “I’ll keep a close watch as you go and make alterations if needed. Hurry up and get ready.”

With a sigh and a roll of her eyes, Kari stepped just into the room along with Doc. I switched on my alchemar, using its power to loosen gravity’s hold on the two of them just a bit.

“Go.”

Kari put a bit too much into her jump—I had to act quickly to increase her gravity slightly and prevent her from smacking into the ceiling. (Which I mean, is something I’d like to see, but...time and a place for everything.) Doc, on the other hand, didn’t give quite as much of a push as I expected, so I had to reduce the pull on her even further at the same time. It wasn’t easy, but in the end I managed. Both of them landed right in front of the other door, and Doc immediately pressed her ear against it, alchemar lighting up.

She may not be much of a fighter, but Witch Doctor has a precision control over her alchemar the likes of which I’ve never seen. Metal is her preferred element, usually for creating scalpels out of thin air to be 100% sure they’re sterile, and she’s trained herself to manipulate all the moving parts of nearly any physical lock. From what she’s told me, though, it uses up a lot of the armor’s energy, and she was already wounded—I guess she expected something like this could happen, which is why she brought the fake eye for the first door. This one must’ve needed a password or something else she couldn’t circumvent. Whatever the case, it was open in no time flat.

I couldn’t see much of the lab from where I stood, but as soon as the door was open Kari slipped inside moving at inhuman speeds. Mere moments later she was back, holding in her hands a small tube containing roughly a dozen white pills. I winced, waiting to see if she had set off some other security measure with her impatience, but fortunately no such thing occurred.

“Anything else while we’re here?” Kari asked.

Doc took the tube in her hands, beaming through her mask. “Finally...we can do so much good with this!”

Now doesn’t that just warm your heart. Well, not for Kari, judging by the way she was looking back into the lab with an air of appraisal.

“Okay,” I said, “we got our mark, now let’s get the hell out of here. Ready?”

I got them back across the room and turned to leave. About three steps past the door, a piercing alarm went off. This sort of thing is so frustrating, really: this constant blaring noise throws off your focus, and there’s usually some flashing red light that distracts you too. Not to mention it means you’ve kinda failed and put your whole job (and potentially life) in jeopardy.

“What? How?!” Doc asked, clutching the tube tightly to her chest.

“Those guards we battled earlier must’ve regained consciousness,” Kari said. “Best we get moving, hm?”

I’d like to think this is her fault somehow. Regardless, moving was indeed the best idea at this juncture, so the three of us dashed back towards the elevator shaft only to be cut off by a wall of security guards who immediately opened fire. Doc and I deflected their bullets while Kari threw both hands forward and exerted her own power. Instantly, time froze for the guards, but I knew she wouldn’t be able to hold so many for long. And we still didn’t know what might be waiting for us past this point…

“Split up,” Kari said through clenched teeth. “I’ll draw them back towards the lab!”

That didn’t sit well with me. But, Doc was already moving, and I certainly didn’t want to still be standing here when these trigger-happy twits rejoined us in normal time, so I ran off down a side hallway and hoped for the best. Soon I could hear the gunshots resume. Up ahead I could see a large vent in the ceiling, so I reversed gravity to land next to it and climb inside; a bit of crawling later and I emerged in the same elevator shaft as earlier. I quickly hopped back up to the wall I had been blown right through and prepared to retrace my steps. That’s when I saw something that brought me to a screeching halt.

The three alchemar-equipped guards we had been fighting earlier? They were still out cold, strewn across the room at random. No way they were the ones who sounded the alarm, as Kari had suggested. Isn’t that suspicious.

“All units, co—"

A radio clipped to one of the downed guards was bursting with sound and static. Snatching it up, I adjusted the dial to get a clearer signal.

“Repeat: intruder has doubled back towards main elevator! Requesting backup!”

I ground my teeth in anticipation. Sure enough, it was only a matter of seconds before Kari came bounding out of the shaft, stopping short with wide eyes when she spotted me standing there.

“What’s up, Kari?” I asked. “Looks like it wasn’t these pricks who set off the alarm. Got any other ideas?”

Kari put on a smile as she casually walked off to the side. “Roche...didn’t expect you to head this way. Well, uh, who knows? Maybe someone spotted them, or…”

She trailed off as she realized I was increasing gravity on her. “Or. Maybe someone with a time-bending alchemar moved so quickly she was able to tap a pressure plate before her associates had a chance to notice.”

The next instant, Kari was right in front of me pressing a gun into my forehead. “Fascinating theory. Supposing it’s true, what would you do next?”

“Oh, I don’t know, ask her to explain her evil plan probably.”

“Hehe, ‘evil’? That’s adorable. You’re expecting something far more elaborate than what your associate is going for, darling.” She tapped her skirt with her free hand. “I just pocketed half the pills I found. It’ll take the good doctor a bit to reverse-engineer them, and in the meantime, I’ll be able to turn a profit unloading my own inventory.”

I should’ve expected as much, really. Gritting my teeth, I said, “I dunno, still sounds pretty evil to me.”

Kari rolled her eyes. “Oh, lighten up, Roche. Look at it this way: a few people are going to have access to the drug a little sooner than planned, and at a lower price than MiliGrand is asking. Is it so wrong that I get a little bonus out of it?”

“You really don’t get it.”

Nearby yelling alerted us to the approaching guards. Kari pulled back with a smirk, and the two of us dashed back towards the entrance we had used, narrowly avoiding bullets all the way. Kari stayed more than a few steps ahead—doubt she would have heard me even if I had said anything. Eventually we made it to the meetup point, finding Doc already waiting there, exuding relief at the sight of us.

“I’m so glad you two are okay!” she said. “That was a close call, wasn’t it?”

“Nothing to worry about, darling,” Kari said. “Escaping a place like this easy for any proper Phantom Thief.”

“Yeah,” I said, “and you too, I guess.”

Twirling her gun in her hand, Kari said, “Goodness, Roche, no need to be so petty. Let’s go back to HQ and celebrate a job well done.”

I turned to Witch Doctor. “She pocketed some pills.”

Pain. Thankfully alchemars’ protective fields can be left on even when the main power isn’t active, keeping us alive when greedy assholes shoot us in the side of the head, but the bullet still hurts like hell.

“You just had to spoil the good mood, didn’t you?” Kari said.

Doc jumped and backed away. “K...Kari! What are you doing?!”

“I gave him fair warning, and it’s not like he’s dead. Look at what you’ve done, Roche: she’s distressed.”

It might not have been quite on par with getting blasted through a wall, but getting shot still proved enough to push me over my limit. “Kari, why the hell did you even join the Phantom Network?! If you’re only in this for the money, then you don’t understand what sets us apart from the elite bastards we’re stealing from!”

Kari seemed unimpressed by my display. “I’m sorry, have I hampered your noble cause in any way? It’s not as though I’ve taken all the pills for my own, or swapped them out with fakes or any such thing. I’m simply—"

“Securing more money for yourself, I know. You weren’t satisfied with what Doc had already promised you, so you didn’t see anything wrong with helping yourself to whatever else you wanted.”

“No, I don’t. As I just said, the numbers—"

“ _It’s not about the damn numbers_! That’s my entire point! We may need to turn a profit to make ends meet, but the rest of us are doing this because we care about what the Phantom Network represents! We’re surviving this system to do our part to bring it down, but you’re trying to use it for your own benefit!”

She shot me again. I didn’t really care.

“You don’t even know what ‘honor among thieves’ means. You’re just a common criminal who doesn’t care about anyone but herself!”

Kari was taking aim for a third shot when Witch Doctor shouted, “Stop! That’s enough!”

We both went still.

“...Please. Let’s just head back. All that really matters is that we’ve got the drug. I don’t…”

She trailed off. My frustration had waned a bit by now, so I was actually feeling just a little bit guilty. Kari holstered her gun and said, “Excellent idea. Shall we, Roche?”

Tempting. Quite tempting. “Fine. I’ll keep my mouth shut.”

And I did. Doc paid us and got right to work reverse-engineering the drug, and in less than a week she was taking it to contacts in medical facilities around the world. I’m sure Kari had sold out her inventory well before then. Much as she pisses me off, the fact is that what she does just isn’t any of my business, so I’m not gonna tattle on her to the Network Admin or anything. But there’s no way in hell I’m working with her again. Even a wonder drug wouldn’t be enough to get her to change.


End file.
